Histories

Brian’s Notes:

1. There is the possibility of two Thomas Allen’s. One referenced as Captain Thomas Allen, and the second otherwise documented as a farmer having lived in St Mary’s Island, MD.
2. Undeterminable as to which of the Thomas Allen’s did the three sons belong.
3. William was not the eldest (Thomas was) BUT William was not one of the children held for ransom by the Patuxent Tribe.
4. William resurfaces in 1656 to settle the estate of his father along with elder brother Thomas (Robert is assumed deceased)
5. Why did eight years pass to settle Thomas Sr’s estate when there wasn’t enough in 1648 to reclaim the two boys from the Patuxent Tribe? (Possbly a clue that there were two Thomas’ but not necessarily)
6. No record in St Mary’s Island pertaining to any of the three sons except for the 1656 estate sale.
7. Presuming for a moment that William Allen moved to New Jersey (New Holland) he may have been pressed to change his name. The Dutch were at war with the British and Allen would have been an indicator that he was British; Allender however sounds Dutch). There is a famous William Allen (however not the same one from St Mary’s Island) that is historically significant to the Delaware bay area (Philadelphia and eastward to New Jersey).

History of Thomas Allen, passenger on the Arc (and the Dove) landed at St Mary’s Island, MD in 1633.

http://books.google.com/books?id=KjOIEDCpxsQC&pg=PA124&lpg=PA124&dq=Thomas+Allen,+Point+Lookout&source=bl&ots=a0AQSFeesd&sig=eJFekb5oZ0C9hw3rnTVbTna4YXI&hl=en&ei=REDPSs_AJIal8Qaq4tn3Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=Thomas%20Allen%2C%20Point%20Lookout&f=false

pg 124

Of course, humanity triumphed on occasion. It did for the sons of Thomas Allen of St Michael, Maryland. Allen was among the first servants recruited for Maryland in the early 1630’s. A decade and a half later, he was a free man again with some land, three young sons and a fear that something would happen to him., leaving his children impoverished orphans. Thomas’s wife was evidently dead. In 1648, Allen wrote his will, which set out his fears. It tells how Allen, an outspoken Protestant, had fallen foul with a group of Catholic Irishmen and believed they planned to murder him. It pointed the finger at the Irishman responsible if he was killed and called on his friends to look after his two younger sons if he was murdered, as “I would not have them sold for slaves.’

Four months later, Thomas Allen was indeed murdered but not by Irishmen. His body was found on the seashore at Point Lookout, St Michaels, one early August morning in 1648. There were the entry marks of three arrows in his body and he had been scalped. His two youngest sons, Thomas and Robert, were missing.

The boys had been kidnapped by the Patuxent tribe, who had slain their father. News came that they could be ransomed. The tribe wanted 900 pounds of tobacco for his younger brother Robert. A court of burgesses was convened and proceeded to order an audit of the dead man’s estate. There wasn’t much. Thomas Allen evidently didn’t own land of any value, and the terms of his indentured servant was nearly up. After sixteen years in the colony, his only assets of any worth were a small boat, a gun and fifteen pigs. After court costs were paid and Allen’s debts discharged, there wouldn’t be enough for the ransom. The worthy burgesses announced that the county wouldn’t foot the bill. But they had a solution. If someone would pay the ransom, they would order that the boys be bound out to the ransomer as indentured servants till there were twenty-one- in their dead father’s words, they would be ‘sold for slaves.’

Happily, the dead man had genuinely good friends. Two of the them paid the ransom and took the boys- but as sons not servants. As one declared when he committed himself to paying the 900 pounds of tobacco, it was done ‘without any consideration of servitude or any other consideration whatsoever but his free love and affection.’

Thomas Allen of the Province of Maryland, 1633
An Account of His Murder and His Childrens' Kidnapping

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/md/state/bios/allen.html

Editors: Words enclosed in [brackets] are those of the editors and not part of the original record.

Thomas Allen, Sr. was apparently the same Thomas Allen who probably arrived on The Ark and the Dove in 1633/4. According to Skordas, one Thomas Allen was transported to Maryland in 1633 (1:121); and one Thomas Allen was transported in 1633 as a servant (ABH:98), these two possibly having been the same. One Thomas Allen was gifted 50 acres by Leonard Calvert in 1640 (1:71-2); and one Thomas Allen petitioned in 1640 to confirm his title to land granted by Capt. William Clayborne (1:92-3). Thomas Allen, Jr., and William Allen, were sons of Thomas Allen, Sr., who was deceased by 1656 (Q:115). No record is found in either this source or Gibb of an early Robert Allen, and that he was deceased by 1656 is documented by the sale by his brothers of their father's land (below).

Thomas Allen was apparently killed by Indians, not Irishmen, and at least two of his sons, Robert and Thomas, kidnapped.

Because Thomas' children were missing, and a ransom demanded by the Indians it was necessary for the court to determine how to handle the expense of the ransom. The final determination was that they would be indentured to whom so ever ransomed them; i.e., they would be placed in servitude to white men instead of Indians:

Their father, however, was apparently well justified in placing his trust in his friends:

No further record has been found of an early Robert Allen, and that he was deceased by 1656 is documented by the sale by his brothers of their father's land.